Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Northern Ireland Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Justin Madders Excerpts
Wednesday 22nd June 2022

(1 year, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Brandon Lewis Portrait Brandon Lewis
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We all want to see Stormont back up and running. It is important that we see all the Ministers back with their full powers. We have caretaker Ministers in place now, thanks to legislation that we passed recently, but having Stormont making spending decisions, getting money out the door and supporting businesses and people in Northern Ireland is the right thing to do.

Justin Madders Portrait Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)
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2. What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on progress in the Northern Ireland protocol negotiations.

Brandon Lewis Portrait The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Brandon Lewis)
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I have regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues about issues affecting Northern Ireland more widely, including the Northern Ireland protocol.

Justin Madders Portrait Justin Madders
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The Secretary of State will be aware that the Northern Ireland Business Brexit Working Group, which represents 14 industries, released a statement last week stating that

“there are significant concerns about the introduction of an all-encompassing dual regulatory regime.”

I understand that dairy farmers have similar concerns. Having heard about those issues, can the Secretary of State tell us what consultation the Government did with businesses before introducing this regime?

Brandon Lewis Portrait Brandon Lewis
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We are in continual engagement with business. We have had more than two meetings a month with the wider group, and the Minister of State and I have made more than 30 visits to businesses that are members of those groups. We are in constant communication with business. It is important that we design the details in conjunction with business to ensure that businesses that are doing well and sectors such as dairy that benefit from the economy across the island of Ireland do not lose out. We must also ensure that we deliver for the businesses that are so detrimentally affected by the problems with the EU’s implementation of the protocol.